Think & Play
Thoughtplay is the creative team behind various popular websites and other projects. At this blog we give away bright ideas regularly, and comment on interesting trends both online and off. The thought channel is for more business-related trends, play looks at entertainment and leisure, and thoughtplay introduces our own creative ideas, as well as news about our projects.
Alex is smart, his advertisers less so | 101206
Last year's internet success story, MillionDollarHomePage spawned a thousand imitators, but none of the truly innovated the original concept. Until now. Pixelotto takes the same essential principle of MDHP - there are 1 million pixels for sale on the site which advertisers can buy in blocks of 10x10 - but adds a significant twist: this time the pixels cost $2 a piece, as opposed to $1. This might not seem like much of an innovation, but the rationale for increasing the charge is. Rather than all of the cash going into the pocket of the site owner, 50% of the revenue generated by the site will be won by one of its visitors, with an additional 5% going to a charity of the user’s choice. In theory therefore some lucky person will walk away with $1m of their own.
The prize is not only a means of driving traffic to the site, it is also generating click-throughs to the advertisers. To be eligible for the prize you have to register on the site (with some well-thought-out steps to prevent multiple applications from the same person) and thereafter you receive an entry into the prize draw every time you click on an ad on the site (with a limit of 10 times a day). Once you have clicked on an ad it is greened out, so you have to click on different advertisers each time.
All very clever, and who came up with the idea? Alex Tew, the creator of the original MDHP. To date he has sold around $260,000 worth of pixels and his Alexa rating has started exceptionally well.
So, a winner for Alex, his users and his advertisers? Well perhaps not the last of three. If you do advertise on Pixelotto there is no doubt that your site will receive tens of thousands of click-throughs. The problem is that these are going to be users visiting the site to quickly click through their ten allotted entries of the day - the odds of them being genuinely interested in the product/service being offered is slim. This is compounded by the fact that many of the advertisers are simply linking through to their regular home page. A visitor who glances at your site for a couple of seconds at best needs to see something other than a detailed homepage like Justsloggi - a bespoke landing page with a clear message would be much more appropriate. Lastminute.com attempts this with a dedicated Pixelotto prize draw, but this is hampered by the fact it is contained within the regular site's frameset.
So is it worth advertising on Pixelotto? Perhaps, but only if you can get your landing page right.
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